How to Get Things Done

My parents have taught me to 1) protect/defend what I care about, 2) take action against injustices, and 3) when lodging a complaint, go straight to the top. Case in point:

Dear Andrea*,

At masters' swim practice last night, we held a "mini meet" in order to get race times for various events and (potentially) judge our swimming progress. Unfortunately, according to the coach, Bryan Ferretti, we were not permitted to use the starting blocks. Several swimmers, including myself, were very disappointed, as we have had many years of competitive swimming experience and know that race times are greatly affected by a good start.

Furthermore, the masters' swimming website states that "members participate in a variety of ways including fitness swimming, local competition, and national and international competition," and that "practices will include technique work, interval training, race pacing, ***starting techniques***, and video analysis." If these are accurate descriptions of the program, then it seems illogical to prevent capable swimmers from using starting blocks.

I will be graduating this may and leaving Rochester, so this marks the end of my experience swimming at UR. However, I wanted to write to you with this concern, as it was shared by several other swimmers in the program, with the hope that perhaps next season it may be addressed. I think that the masters' program itself is extremely valuable; since I was not permitted to be on the UR Swimming and Diving this year, the masters' program provided me with a next-best team experience and put me in contact with a group of new wonderful, friendly, hard-working swimmers. I hope it will continue to be successful in the future.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Allison Goldstein

* Andrea Golden is the Athletic Director at the University of Rochester.

Allison,

Thank you for writing to explain the situation in the pool. I will review all of this with our instructor and with Jane Possee and Kris Shanley who also oversee the area. I am a little confused myself as to why you could not use the starting blocks but I will investigate to gain clarity. Glad you could use the master's swim to continue with your swimming. I know that people love swimming and master's really serves the needs of this community. Good luck with all your endeavors as you depart the University of Rochester. We wish you well and great success. Do return whenever you are able...for sure things will continue to develop at this institution.

Andrea Golden